lendl v mcenroe

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the merits of lendl v mcenroe.
While mcenroe was a superb serve volleyer he won only two of the four grand slams while Lendl won three out of four. Lendl also spent a then record number of weeks at number one and won eight grand slams versus seven for mcenroe.
Lendl is also acknowledged as the player who ushered in the power game and the modern tennis player as athlete.
Finally his record over mcenroe head to head is i believe 23-15. An open and shut case as far as I am concerned.
Any opinions?

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the merits of lendl v mcenroe.
While mcenroe was a superb serve volleyer he won only two of the four grand slams while Lendl won three out of four. Lendl also spent a then record number of weeks at number one and won eight grand slams versus seven for mcenroe.
Lendl is also acknowledged as the player who ushered in the power game and the modern tennis player as athlete.
Finally his record over mcenroe head to head is i believe 23-15. An open and shut case as far as I am concerned.
Any opinions?

First Welcome to the Forum. Next, I suppose you pretty much summed it up. I don't think you will find many who will argue that once Ivan Lendl became a World Class Professional, he was nearly impossible to beat on just about every surface other than grass. And like Roger Federer, although he never won Wimbledon, he was still one of the best Grass Players during that period. He won Queen's Club, beating then #1 Boris Becker in the Finals, and reached the Finals of Wimbledon twice.

Aside from Boris Becker & Stefan Edberg, I truly believe Ivan was the next best Grass Player. Problem for Ivan is, S&V didn't come naturally for him and one could argue that S&V doesn't come naturally for most Players, which is why you have so many Baseliners in the game.

Although John McEnroe is touted as being one of the best, I think we tend to forget how incredible Edberg was at getting in and putting away the ball. I watched Edberg up close and I still can't understand how effortless it was for him to take those few steps forward towards the Net.

Becker wasn't a fantastic S&V Player imo, what produced the success for Boris was his heavy serve. There was so much power on his serve that your racquet would shake upon contact.

Yes my friend, Ivan was truly an all around better Player than Johnny Mac but alas the Media was success in convincing the Public that Ivan wasn't a personable guy when in fact Ivan was actually a funny person in the Locker Room and generally liked everybody except for Connors & McEnroe. And lastly the only reason Ivan & John didn't get along was, John didn't respect Ivan's rise to the top at a time when John was still in his prime. John felt Ivan was the reason he didn't win more Majors and that ticked him off.
Welcome to TennisW,

Coach

The only acceptable loss is when your opponent was better than you on that given day.
It is never acceptable to lose when your opponent was not.

Reply to Coach

Coach ... Very well considered and argued piece, I couldn't agree more and while I always knew that Lendl had done well at Wimbledon I suppose I hadn't concluded what you so correctly did: that on grass he was one of the top players in the world at that time.
Lendl was also a smart guy, spoke five languages and played chess to the standard of a grand master. No wonder he found the boorish behaviour of McEnroe and Connors unacceptable.
Thanks for your response and welcome Coach. Can I say if your reply is indicative of the quality of the site then it's in good hands.
Also congratulations on getting your proposition passed (I agree it's too long away) but if people like us don't speak up for the animals then they've got no chance.

Mc Enroe

Hi, my name is Enrique Guldberg i m a tennis coach in Spain. In my opinion statistically, Lendl was better than Mc Enroe, but if we talk about tennis, talent, tactical options. Mc Enroe was the best tennis player in the history. Nobody was, are able to do what BigMc was able to do. Lendl was one of the first to work the fitenss condition, but no the first. In my opinion the first one was Guillermo Vilas. Lendl was a amazing machine, Mc Enroe was an artist

Hi, my name is Enrique Guldberg i m a tennis coach in Spain. In my opinion statistically, Lendl was better than Mc Enroe, but if we talk about tennis, talent, tactical options. Mc Enroe was the best tennis player in the history. Nobody was, are able to do what BigMc was able to do. Lendl was one of the first to work the fitenss condition, but no the first. In my opinion the first one was Guillermo Vilas. Lendl was a amazing machine, Mc Enroe was an artist

Everything

I agree with just about everything said. The only thing i will add is that MAC still plays World Team Tennis at 50 and still makes his mark in the over 35,s pro tours.
So although Lendl was the better player he never made the distance MAC has
(gotta love thoes volleys)